TELPAS Writing Sample

Bell Ringer:

Continuing our review using Kahoots.  I believe I am seeing some success with decimal place value and volume!!  

Lesson:

Each year, we are asked to procure two writing samples from our ELL (English Language Learners) from their math class.  Before, I have used prompts that weren't interesting and were hard to read.  Things like, explain how to solve a long division problem....  think about that....  would you want to have to do that?!?!

So, this year, I found two prompts that I like.  Here is the first one:

I also included a web for brainstorming ideas.  I suggested they look through their math journal and think about what they have been working on in Think Through Math and Khan Academy.

As I wanted well developed writing, I did not assign any additional work.  For those that finished before class was over, they worked on Think Through Math.

SMART Goal: Think Through Math

Bell Ringer:

Using Kahoot to review math concepts.  Concentrating on those that typically stump my students.

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.5.4.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Think Through Math SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Think Through Math. 

STEAM Rotation Day 5

Bell Ringer:

We continue to use Kahoot as our spiral review of concepts that typically stump my students.

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

I had six different STEAM challenges with each group having 3 students.  I carefully arranged the students myself, but then each table group the a number that represented one of the activities.  This allowed students to see that I didn't play favorites.

https://www.amazon.com/Bloxels-Build-Your-Video-Game/dp/B01FUFJ4ZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509132839&sr=8-1&keywords=bloxels

Bloxels - http://home.bloxelsbuilder.com/index.html is a build your own video game activity.  I had three Bloxels kits and three iPads for students to use.  

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Lego Marble Run - https://frugalfun4boys.com/2016/01/13/lego-duplo-marble-run-stem-challenge/ is a STEAM challenge I found on the blog:  Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls.  We used the regular Lego sets I have with no difficulty.  This was the only true group activity where students worked together to complete a single outcome.

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http://littlebits.cc/

littleBits - http://littlebits.cc/ are easy to use electronic building blocks.  I was gifted a class set through Friends of Hamilton.  Again, there were enough pieces for all three students to have their own to explore with.

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https://hourofcode.com/us/learn

Hour of Code - https://hourofcode.com/us/learn gave students a chance to learn how to code.  To be honest, this was the least favorite, as everything else was more of a hands-on challenge.  I may try to find another hands-on activity next time.

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https://intentionalstorytime.wordpress.com/hands-on-science/engineering-challenge-index-card-towers/

STEAM Engineering Challenge:  Index Card Tower -  https://intentionalstorytime.wordpress.com/hands-on-science/engineering-challenge-index-card-towers/ challenged students to build a freestanding tower using only index cards.

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https://www.amazon.com/Klutz-Crazy-Action-Contraptions-Craft/dp/1591747694/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509134420&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+crazy+action+contraptions 

CrazyAction Contraptions - students worked to create one of the contraptions and, while no one was successful in fully completing the challenge, everyone loved it!

Close:

I actually used a random closure generating  website to reflect on the activities.  The website is:  Learning In Hand with Tony Vincent.  The reflection generator web address:

https://tonyv.neocities.org/reflect.html

SMART Goal: Khan Academy and Early Release

Today was an unscheduled early release.  Our HS girls basketball team is in the regional playoffs for the first time in 20 years, so the district chose to allow an early release so that we can travel to the game (about 3 hours from us).  So, we had short classes!

Bell Ringer:

We continue our spiral review each day.  I am focusing on the types of problems that typically give my students the biggest issue on the STAAR test.  I am hoping that daily exposure will make these problems come more easily!

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:  Khan Academy

Interim Assessments

Today we took our Interim Assessments for reading and math.  

https://tea.texas.gov/student.assessment/IA/

SMART Goal: Khan Academy AND Interim Assessment Information

Bell Ringer:

We continue our spiral review each day.  I am focusing on the types of problems that typically give my students the biggest issue on the STAAR test.  I am hoping that daily exposure will make these problems come more easily!

Interim Assessment:  

Tomorrow we will be taking an Interim Assessment sponsored by TEA.  We will take the assessment in both reading (morning) and math (afternoon).  Today, I walked through the tutorial with each class to help prepare them for tomorrow.  The goals of the Interim Assessment can be found online, but here is the gist:

For more information, visit the site:

  https://tea.texas.gov/student.assessment/IA/ 

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.5.3.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Khan Academy SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Khan Academy. 

SMART Goal: Think Through Math

Bell Ringer:

I used a Kahoot to review math concepts.  Today we focused on:  Parenthesis, Personal Financial Literacy, Decimal place value, rounding decimals, volume.

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.5.2.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Think Through Math SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Think Through Math. 

SMART Goal: Khan Academy

Bell Ringer:

We continue our spiral review each day.  I am focusing on the types of problems that typically give my students the biggest issue on the STAAR test.  I am hoping that daily exposure will make these problems come more easily!

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.5.1.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Khan Academy SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Khan Academy. 

Early Release and a Little More Conversation

Bell Ringer:

We continue our spiral review each day.  I am focusing on the types of problems that typically give my students the biggest issue on the STAAR test.  I am hoping that daily exposure will make these problems come more easily!

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

Today, we are only having short classes, so with the additional things we do in my class, we only had time to do a Would You Rather (which I had as a warm up)

http://www.wouldyourathermath.com/?s=valentine&searchsubmit.x=0&searchsubmit.y=0

Once we had determined the answer, we got onto Think Through Math for a few minutes and then it was time to go!

Conversation Hearts: What's In the Box? Prediction and Conclusions

Bell Ringer:

We continue our spiral review each day.  I am focusing on the types of problems that typically give my students the biggest issue on the STAAR test.  I am hoping that daily exposure will make these problems come more easily!

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

Today, we continued working with our conversation heart problem:

We began today, by finding out the totals for the entire 5th Grade.

Next, we compared the 5th grade data to each class's data, gathered yesterday:

Dittrich

Dabbs

Johnson

We used the mean for the 5th grade to predict the number of candies that would be in an unopened box.  Then we opened the box to compare our numbers.

Dittrich 

As you can see this class had 5 areas that came out as predicted.

Dabbs

Sadly, this class's data was not quite as convincing.

Johnson

This class's data was also unconvincing.

We did take a moment to discuss the fact that these boxes are not packaged by a group of Cupids counting out candy hearts.  The boxes are filled by machine and are putting in .9 oz of candy in each box.  The weight of each heart is going to determine the number of hearts per box.

Close:  

We concluded this activity by students completing a student feedback.  Within this feedback, students were asked to explain their results as they answered the questions:

1. Should there be the same number of candies per box?
2. Should each color have a set number of candies per box?
3. What determines the number of candies in each box?

Assignment:  Khan Academy

Conversation Hearts: What's In the Box

Bell Ringer:

We continue our spiral review each day.  I am focusing on the types of problems that typically give my students the biggest issue on the STAAR test.  I am hoping that daily exposure will make these problems come more easily!

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

We began by estimating how many conversation hearts are in a single box.  I used the site Estimation180 to pose the question.

http://www.estimation180.com/day-98.html

Next, I posed today's problem

In order to answer these questions, we needed boxes of Conversation Hearts.  I passed one box to each student.  Next we needed to organize and count our hearts like it was shows on Estimation180.  We began by gathering Individual Data.  We posted our data onto a document first, and then onto a classroom spread sheet.

I had formatted the spreadsheet to add each student's total and each color's total.  When all the data was input, I used formatting to determine each color's average and the total number average.

We filled in the class data and then we compared our individual data to the class data.

At this point, we were finished on this activity for the day.  We will continue our research tomorrow using the 5th Grade Data.

Close:  We will CLOSE tomorrow by answering the questions posed in this investigation.

Assignment:  Think Through Math

Bell Ringer:

I used a Kahoot to review math concepts.  Today we focused on:  Area/Perimeter/Volume, Comparing Decimals, Measurement Conversions, Coordinate Graphing, Estimating, and Expressions.

Lesson Frame:

Before beginning our lesson, I spent a few minutes on two new competitions/goals for the classes to earn:

1)  Think Through Math:  Minute to Win It

• The homeroom class with the most lessons passed from today until March 9 (the day before spring break), earns a day of Minute to Win It games.

2)  Khan Academy Donuts

• When each class has EVERY student reach 30 lessons passed, I will bring in assorted donuts for the class to celebrate!

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.4.7.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Khan Academy SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Khan Academy. 

SMART Goal: Think Through Math

Bell Ringer:

I used a Kahoot to review math concepts.  Today we focused on:  Parenthesis, Personal Financial Literacy, Decimal place value, rounding decimals, volume.

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.4.6.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Think Through Math SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Think Through Math. 

SMART Goal: Khan Academy

I will be out of town the next three days.  There will not be a new post until Friday.

Bell Ringer:

I used a Kahoot to review math concepts.  Today we focused on:  Parenthesis, Personal Financial Literacy, Decimal Place Value, Rounding, Volume

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

First, students completed today's Countdown to STAAR 5.4.1.

When they finished, they continued working towards their Khan Academy SMART goal. 

Close:

Students got onto Classroom and described what they worked on today on Khan Academy.